It is known that the addition of a reinforcement component to building materials, such as concrete, including asphalt cement concrete and portland cement concrete and the like, can add strength, toughness, and durability to improve the integrity of the material properties. There are a variety of reinforcement fiber additives known in the art that can provide some of these characteristics to concrete building materials. Typical reinforcement materials that are added to concrete include, for example, various gauges of wire mesh or reinforcement fibers, such as, asbestos fibers, glass fibers, steel fibers, mineral fibers, natural fibers, synthetic fibers (such as polymer and aramid fibers), and cellulose fibers. A non-limiting example of suitable reinforcement fibers includes Basalt fibers. Some reinforcement fibers are better suited for particular applications than others. For example, asbestos fibers are known to provide effective reinforcement but, due to environmental and health concerns these fibers, are not extensively used. In addition, some fibers are relatively expensive.
Some advances have been made in the area of fiber reinforcement to provide increased toughness and durability, and reduce cracking in the matrix of concrete building materials. However, the known reinforcing fibers have a number of disadvantages, such, as for example, it is difficult to handle loose fibers and to control their introduction into a concrete. It is desired to improve the ease of handling the fibers and for the fibers to mix readily and distribute uniformly in a cement concrete.